Why does marketing matter?

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Marketing tells your love story – about who you are.

It helps you get noticed – for all the right reasons.

And it helps you get picked out of the crowd!

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An effective marketing team or marketing agency uses a combination of long-term and short-term content strategies (called a marketing funnel) to help drive marketing leads and nurture those leads.

Most B2B marketing teams tend to highlight the first part of the marketing funnel (i.e. lead-generation). You can see B2B content-creators (communications specialists, graphic designers, etc)  focused on generating awareness and interest through content marketing, whitepapers, blogs, and social media. In other words, they spend a huge effort in getting the word out there.

(Many B2B companies try to build a strong brand presence, first, as part of their awareness strategy. Who, for instance, doesn’t know Coca-cola? That’s the power of strong brand. All of Coca-cola’s marketing efforts fit within that larger brand story.)

The latter part of the funnel (evaluation and commitment) is turned towards nurturing leads. Capturing leads, sometimes by sharing high-value case-studies, is one way that marketers help contribute to the bottom-line.

So why is it called a funnel? Let’s say 100 people visit your company’s website or social media (awareness). Of those, half may follow you on social media or sign up for a newsletter (interest). And during the evaluation stage, 15 may stay actively engaged. And during the final stage (sale), 2 decide to purchase.

Now you can understand why capturing interest and attention in the awareness and interest phases is so important for business! And B2B buyers typically spend 90 percent of their buyer’s journey researching products and services before they decide to purchase. The internet has changed this game even more: Gartner research found that 83% of surveyed customers accessed digital channels even in the late purchasing stages.

Lifecyle of a Butterfly

Ready to ramp up your B2B marketing content? @Leokadiacreative, we partner with our clients to create compelling stories filled with juicy technical details designed to help promote your organization and sell your services and products.

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Content Marketing Helps the Bottom-Line

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Creating killer content is, let’s face it, time-consuming.

BUT there are a number of reasons creating amazing content contributes to your bottom-line.

Wondering if you should refresh the content on your website? How can you persuade your CEO or upper management that your marketing department should be spending budget on killer content?

✔B2B buyers spend 90 percent of their buying journey educating themselves.

✔Up to 70 percent of buyers make a decision ONLINE – based on your website content and information.

✔80-90 percent of people start the INTENT to buy with an online search.

Our digital world is transforming the way we buy, even in B2B. That means, your customers make a lot of their buying decision based on your website’s information. Your website should have meaningful and educational content. Often, buyers may even share blog posts or social media, as part of their decision-making process.

Trying to get your marketing colleagues on board? Curata’s recent survey of 500+ marketers indicates that 71% of marketers are increasing their investment in content marketing in the coming year.

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Ready to ramp up your B2B marketing content? @Leokadiacreative, we partner with our clients to create compelling big picture stories to help promote your organization and sell your services and products.

 

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How to be a Freelancer (in the US)

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A friend of mine recently jumped into the freelance world, and was asking me a host of questions such as whether it is possible to abstain from giving your social security number on a W9 tax form. (Short answer: it is possible, you just have to do a lot of paperwork!) Or can you get a secure electronic payment without handing over your bank routing information? (Short answer: yes, there are services that help protect the financial privacy of both you and the client).

But here’s the quick and dirty – if you are just getting started.

a day in the life of a blogger (1)

Ignite your Content in 2019!

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our products (2)

from our teachers (4)

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Why social media marketing flops

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“We love Pinterest!” says a prospective client who wants to promote their business with social media marketing.

You prod further and discover that in their industry Pinterest would represent roughly 5 percent of all “likes” or even leads ….but they want you dedicate at least half of your time to it …

What can you do when you know upfront that a project will have little to no success but a client has their heart set on it?

Pivot them in the right direction by sharing best practices. Social media marketing can be an effective tool to promote your business, if executed well.

You should keep in mind the following when executing a campaign on a new or existing social media channel:

  1. Are you using your existing channels effectively?

    If your company’s website hasn’t been updated or had a major refresh in a while, your efforts may be better focused there.

    (Generally, the majority of your leads (60-90%) will come via your website.)

  2. Set campaign goals.

    Do you want to increase awareness? Generate more buzz?

  3. What are the primary social media channels that your audience prefers?

    Don’t have the information? Don’t have data? Research it!

    If the supporting data and research clearly shows Facebook, don’t launch a campaign on Instagram.

  4. Are you as consistent on social media as you are with other communication channels?

    Remember social media is only another platform.

    The voice and imagery must be consistent with the rest of your communications. That also means proofreading!

  5. On a continuous basis, use social media data and analytics appropriately and in conjunction with other research.

    Is a post with an image performing well? Is this a fluke or is can this be replicated?

  6. Measure.

    After each campaign measure quantitative and qualitative results.

    Love this? Connect with me, let’s create something great together!

 

How can your brand convey trust?

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How can your brand convey trust?

  1. Keep it simple. Ensure all language and images are consistent.
  2. Avoid cringe-worthy content.
  3. Make it easy for your clients to contact you.
  4. Provide useful and helpful content – not just another newsletter.
  5. Can you communicate who you are as a company?

http://www.inc.com/laurel-mintz/5-easy-fixes-to-make-your-brand-trustworthy.html

Can engaging copy create customers?

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The answer is yes.

Entrepreneur offers three tips for lead-conversions:
1. Identify high-quality linking opportunities to boost traffic.
2. Offer users a reason to click on your links.
3. Choose your headlines carefully to invoke desire.

Why does content matter? Content is still king and content marketing can account for up to sixty percent of a company’s lead generation.

Another way to say this:

“”82% of customers have a more positive outlook on a company after reading custom content, and 70% of customers feel closer to a business after engaging with their content. As a result, 74% of companies find that lead quality and quantity went up as they introduced a content marketing strategy.” (Source: Marketing and Growth Hacking)

Whether you are a small enterprise or lean marketing team, you want to focus on running your business … Let’s work together to tell your story…

Call for a Free 15 Min Consult. 

 

Rebuking the theory of peak oil

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There is quite a bit of fuss about peak oil. Are we running out? Are end times near?

Pulitzer Prize winner, Daniel Yergin has a piece on peak oil over at the Wall Street Journal. He explores the origin of the theory and gently explains that Hubbert, the theory’s proponent, was mistaken.

“Hubbert was imaginative and innovative,” recalled Peter Rose, who was Hubbert’s boss at the U.S. Geological Survey. But he had “no concept of technological change, economics or how new resource plays evolve. It was a very static view of the world.” Hubbert also assumed that there could be an accurate estimate of ultimately recoverable resources, when in fact it is a constantly moving target.”

It may very well be that Rose could have said, “… energy is a constantly moving target.”

Over at Exxon’s Perspectives blog, the writers have a done excellent job at explaining energy mixes and the changing shape of consumption.  This isn’t a shift in language, it’s a shift in a broader consumption of different forms of energy, oil included.

Bringing Electricity, Bringing Wealth

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What does energy have to do with poverty? Or rather, what does energy have to do with growth?

Global energy is projected to exponentially grow by 2035. While the economies of developing countries are continuing to grow, infrastructure has not kept pace at the same rate, especially in China and India. Instead infrastructure, such as electricity, is concentrated in urban areas and cities. Globally more people have access to electricity, yet recent statistics show almost 1.3 billion people still do not.

For investors, this presents a business opportunity.
Notes a Goldman Sachs report, “Power is the life blood of any modern economy. An erratic or inaccessible power supply is often a key constraining factor to the sustainable growth prospects of many early stage emerging economies, given its central role in increasing production.”

US Energy independence … by accident

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Energy independence by accident? That’s an idea being championed by P. Verlerger. He suggests that by 2023, the US will be energy independent … by accident.

He argues that a combination of factors are leading up to this event, such as new financial service products, deregulation of natural gas and independents like Devon Energy who have invested in horizontal drilling techniques.